GreenScreen Tips for Vegas
- Thread starter greeches
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plainman007
Well-known member
What your refering to is simlar to a garbage matte ? So can this mask be animated also. Just like other video layers. Because then i dont need a complete green screen. We can just use a small green board only around the persons torso and create a travelling matte which we can keyframe to maintain a garbage mask around the person. Is my understanding right or am i wrong ?
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plainman007
Well-known member
gosh that was quick.....i guess we both are online now....thanks....meanwhile is the vegas keyer of acceptable quality for a professional production. Ive heard its got a very weak keying tool. Id appreciate your perspective. Thanks again.
greg121
Well-known member
I'll give you my hobbyist/home movie perspective - it's good enough to fool the kids most of the time and grown-ups some of the time. I'm not sure how well that relates to professional production. It works well for the 'movie magic' that I do.
It all comes down to lighting. Light the screen well and the talent well and you could get a good if not great key with Vegas.
Somebody else doing 'pro' work will probably chime in...
Greg
It all comes down to lighting. Light the screen well and the talent well and you could get a good if not great key with Vegas.
Somebody else doing 'pro' work will probably chime in...
Greg
Vegas's keyer did these:
Draw your own conclusions.
Draw your own conclusions.
Thanks, greg -- those things are pretty highly subjective, so oh, well.
A lot of the things I did in that little short are kind of trade secrets. All done with Vegas, though, except a couple tiny things in Paint Shop Pro.
A lot of the things I did in that little short are kind of trade secrets. All done with Vegas, though, except a couple tiny things in Paint Shop Pro.
plainman007
Well-known member
Hi Jim,
That looks like an awesome key. But it was a background on which there was an image. Which means using Vegas Keyer instead of alpha channeling. Both are inanimate objects. Do you have anything you could show us which would be a person chroma keyed against a background. An actual visual shot. This is more of like overlaying. Since i am a 3ds max guy i would like, do this within the max environment using alpha compositing. But most greenkeying shots involve some people against footage action. I think. And thats what we are more interested in. Please shed more light on keying people against footage. We would be thankful for your help. Also you have mentioned something about being your trade secret,,, were you refering to the chroma key technique you used or something else specific which the other member asked you ?
That looks like an awesome key. But it was a background on which there was an image. Which means using Vegas Keyer instead of alpha channeling. Both are inanimate objects. Do you have anything you could show us which would be a person chroma keyed against a background. An actual visual shot. This is more of like overlaying. Since i am a 3ds max guy i would like, do this within the max environment using alpha compositing. But most greenkeying shots involve some people against footage action. I think. And thats what we are more interested in. Please shed more light on keying people against footage. We would be thankful for your help. Also you have mentioned something about being your trade secret,,, were you refering to the chroma key technique you used or something else specific which the other member asked you ?
I'm not sure I understand what your concern is in terms of "background on which there was an image" -- each shot was keyed from a greenscreen image and composited with the other elements of the shots (lighting, beams, planets, landscape, etc.). What do you mean by "using Vegas Keyer instead of alpha channeling" vis-a-vis those shots and your concerns about Vegas's keyer?
I don't have a whole lot of examples of people being keyed, but here are a few -- the person was greenscreen; the cubicles, etc., are all CGI. Just a little something for a background plate.
I don't have a whole lot of examples of people being keyed, but here are a few -- the person was greenscreen; the cubicles, etc., are all CGI. Just a little something for a background plate.
plainman007
Well-known member
AMAZING...yeah...sorry about my communication limitation in what i was hoping to see. I wanted to see people shots. Thats what i wanted. But all your keyeing shots are nothing short of fantastic ! Even the CG is very nicely done. OK im convinced with the quality of the Vegas keyer. I guess youve perfected the art a lil too far. But tell me something plz,, how do you key out right including the legs,, i mean the floor ???...you had him walking on green material too ? Ive understood keying people with torso shots. How does one key right till the feet. Do we paint the floor green too ? Ive seen green screens that seemlessly run onto the floor too but how do they manage the shadow of the person on the green ??? Sorry if my questions are too naive.
The greenscreen was a large piece of green felt which hung down and extended out over the floor. The office pic is from Serious Magic Ultra, even though the keying was not done in Ultra. The redoubtably handsome "actor" happens to be yours truly.
Getting a clean key is first about good, even lighting, and keeping as much green spill off the subject as possible.
Then, in post, it's not just a matter of dragging the chroma keyer onto the clip; you need to prep the clip first. Even out the green using secondary color correction, and while you're at it, purify it. Effects like chroma blur are also important, to get rid of chromatic aberrations (color fringing). Then, you'll probably still have to tweak the chroma key filter to get a good key.
Vegas has a very good keyer. Stand alone software like Ultra is better, but don't doubt vegas. I have achieved better results and more quickly using Vegas than I have using effects software like Commotion. It has arguably the best keyer of any NLE in its class (though Liquid's keyer is pretty darn good, too).
Also, remember that DV is low-resolution and with poor color. High-resolution, high-color quality footage like DVCPRO HD footage keys beautifully.
Getting a clean key is first about good, even lighting, and keeping as much green spill off the subject as possible.
Then, in post, it's not just a matter of dragging the chroma keyer onto the clip; you need to prep the clip first. Even out the green using secondary color correction, and while you're at it, purify it. Effects like chroma blur are also important, to get rid of chromatic aberrations (color fringing). Then, you'll probably still have to tweak the chroma key filter to get a good key.
Vegas has a very good keyer. Stand alone software like Ultra is better, but don't doubt vegas. I have achieved better results and more quickly using Vegas than I have using effects software like Commotion. It has arguably the best keyer of any NLE in its class (though Liquid's keyer is pretty darn good, too).
Also, remember that DV is low-resolution and with poor color. High-resolution, high-color quality footage like DVCPRO HD footage keys beautifully.
plainman007
Well-known member
Really...The quality doesnt deteriorate or something ?
The quality shouldn't diminish. The render time will increase with each effect added, though.
plainman007
Well-known member
Ooofff...then we could use more than one keyer to handle more color variations ??? Wow. Vegas is amazing man. Im glad i found this software. Will you believe me i tried all the other big boys (avid, premiere pro) and all they do is crash and lock up, rather than let you create stuff. This software deserves an academy award at least for the fact that it has never crashed even once since i installed it. Even Windows isnt that stable !
An alternative to using multiple key effects (as you might with uneven green backgrounds, etc., would be to use multiple Secondary Color Corrector effects to take each shade of green and change it to pure green. Then, you'd add only one chromakey effect.
Not sure if the multiple keys or the multiple color corrections will cause a longer render time. I'd suspect it would be about the same.
(Of course, another alternative altogether is to use Secondary Color Corrector and instead of adjusting the green, change it to an alpha channel. This doesn't yield as clean of results as the chromakeyer, though, even though it's doing more or less the same thing.)
Not sure if the multiple keys or the multiple color corrections will cause a longer render time. I'd suspect it would be about the same.
(Of course, another alternative altogether is to use Secondary Color Corrector and instead of adjusting the green, change it to an alpha channel. This doesn't yield as clean of results as the chromakeyer, though, even though it's doing more or less the same thing.)